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NBA Picks

Today's Underdog Value Lies with the Lakers and Cavs

Friday in the NBA is always filled with good matchups. Today we're to take a look at two of the better ones when Cleveland travels to take on the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Los Angeles Lakers visit Denver. Oddsmakers have made both home teams the favorite in these spots, but I think if you look closely there is some good value in backing the underdogs.

It looks like Brandon Ingram still might be out for Los Angeles and they have been made a +6.5 underdog in this spot. For my NBA pick here I will go ahead and take Los Angeles plus the points because I believe they match up very well with Denver even without one of their best players. Recently the Lakers have been playing tremendous basketball winning six of their last seven games, and the only loss in that span being by just five points to a good Portland team. Although they’re playing at Denver I’ve no problem laying the points here with a team that shoots over 46% from the floor and are averaging 41.2 field goals made per game which ranks third in the NBA. Denver has solid offensive numbers across the board like ranking sixth in shooting efficiency, but their defensive numbers are horrible. Currently, the Nuggets are allowing opponents to shoot 48.1% overall and 37.4% from distance ranking them 30th and 28th in the NBA respectively. These are not good numbers coming in and facing a hungry Los Angeles team that definitely thinks they can win this game.

Los Angeles has been made a -1.5 favorite versus Lebron and company in this game. Although that might look a little bit surprising it really isn’t considering how Cleveland has struggled a touch since the All-Star break. For my pick in this matchup, I will go ahead and back Cleveland to win this game straight up as they have won two games in a row and look to have some momentum coming into this contest. Also, I really like how they matchup with the Clippers across the board especially on the offensive side of the ball where Cleveland ranks third in the NBA in shooting efficiency. The issue for them has been on the defensive side where they rank in the bottom third of the league in most statistics. However, the overall matchups I believe favor Cleveland and with this being a fast-paced game I like for their tempo to overwhelm the Clippers. Anytime I get points with Lebron James on the floor more often than not I’m going to take it.